Poultry farmers go for 'forced molting'

Poultry farmers in North Coastal Andhra Pradesh are resorting to 'forced molting' to reduce the egg production. With the cold storage plants filled with huge stockpile of eggs, farmers are in a dilemma.

To avoid further losses, poultry farmers have adopted the 'forced molting' method for the past 10 days, P Seshagiri Rao, Vizag region chairman of Bromark, told Business Standard.

In this method, farmers completely stop feeding chicken that are above 60-week-old for four to six weeks so that they won't lay eggs. Once market conditions improve, farmers will resume feeding them.

This will save poultry farmers from the cost of feed as well as excess production of eggs. Almost 30 per cent of poultry birds are being subjected to starving in the three districts in the region. Rao said more chicken may have to be starved if the market conditions continue to be the same.

Egg sales have touched rock bottom ever since the outbreak of avian flu in some parts of the country resulting in piling up of eggs with farmers. Every inch of the cold storage plants has been taken up by steady flow of eggs leaving farmers with little storage space. According to estimates, as many as 8-9 crore eggs are lying in cold storage plants in the region and another 3-4 crore eggs are in poultry farms.

Although, there is some improvement in the sale of eggs, the normal level has yet to be reached. As many as 5-6 lakh eggs are left unsold everyday. In normal times, the average sales in North Coastal Andhra Pradesh were 20 lakh a day. But, after the outbreak of bird flu, the sales have fallen to 10 lakh. With the bird flu scare gradually fading, the sales have climbed to 14-15 lakh a day. But the price of each egg at 80-90 paise is far cry from Rs 1.25 during the days when people consumed them on regular basis.

The cost of feed per bird continues to be Re 1 while the demand for both chicken meat and eggs is very low.